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His goal
is turning
troubled teens

The former gang member
and drug user talks straight
with Kalihi youths

---

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

He asked the question: "How many have relatives in prison?" and 70 percent of Daniel Alejandrez' audience stood up.

"How many of you have experienced violence yourself?" About half the 40 people in the Kalihi YMCA meeting room yesterday got to their feet.

Alejandrez' audience tonight at Church of the Crossroads probably won't face those questions, and he wouldn't expect the same frank answers as those from the Kalihi teen-agers.

But the message that Alejandrez, founder of the Barrios Unidos (United Neighborhoods) movement in Southern California and Albino Garcia of Youth Development Inc. of Albuquerque bring to the disparate audiences is that there are more positive, productive paths for teen-agers than violence and drugs.

Alejandrez was brought here this week for the 7 p.m. talk today, the first in the Umematsu and Yasu Watada lecture series on "Peace, Justice and the Environment." Named for the longtime YMCA executive and his wife, it was endowed by David and Kathy Watada Wurfel. It is free and open to the public.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Daniel Alejandrez founded Barrios Unidos, a Santa Cruz-based,
multicultural, nonprofit organization that help youths turn from
violence to more positive, productive avenues. He is pictured
at the Kalihi YMCA, where he addressed Hawaii
teen-agers yesterday.

The men, both survivors of youth gangs, drug habits and street violence, had the rapt attention of the youths as they connected their experiences with their "home boys" with those of the listeners. They have also spent hours talking to inmates at the Juvenile Detention Home and the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.

Alejandrez told the group about a 15-year-old inmate he had just met whose relatives are dead and who's "in there because he has nowhere to go."

He said, "A lot of us have pain and don't know how to let it out."

Alejandrez told about losing 14 family members, including two brothers, to drugs and violence, and of his "20 years spent strung out on heroin" before he pulled out of the life.

The Unidos Barrios movement, which he started in Santa Cruz, has received awards, government grants and national media attention for seeking creative ways to end violence. Among its initiatives are a T-shirt factory that employs barrio youths and features the work of gang artists, and grants for city murals and other projects fostering Hispanic culture.

"All of us come from heartfelt traditions, our tribal feelings," Alejandrez told the ethnic mix of island kids. "A lot of us have cultural and spiritual ways that got away from us. We replaced traditions with negative things."

Alejandrez, who has Yaqui Indian ancestry, and Garcia, with Apache roots, invoke native American spirituality. They focused the young audience's attention by burning sage to cleanse the room.

Garcia asked them individually why they came, and moved in close when answers were murmured toward the floor. "Because I know what can happen in violence." "I want to stay out of trouble." "I know I need help." "I want to have hope." "My counselor said I should drop by."

He startled them later saying: "I get tired of hearing that s---, I don't want to hear it. You say you want help. You do, you got to learn how to receive it. If you really want to take a look at yourself, there's a lot of people who want to help you."

Garcia told the Kalihi boys and girls "why don't you turn around and school your counselors? What we know, comes from you. You know what drugs are being used, what the problems are."

To counselors he said, "Words are OK, but nothing works better with youth than spending time. It's not making them come to your program, it's you going out to their homes, their neighborhoods, their streets."

In a message for both days' audiences, Alejandrez said, "No one is going to come in and save our communities. We've got to do the work."